mercury
/ˈmɜːkjʊɹi/
"mercury" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mercury” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,935 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,935
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Senses relating to the metal.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mercury |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɜːkjʊɹi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #6,935 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mercury” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mercury is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɜːkjʊɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,935 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for mercury, with forms such as "emrcury", "mecrury", and "merccury". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "mercy", "merry", "mercer", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English mercurie (“metallic chemical element, quicksilver; a plant, probably goosefoot (genus Chenopodium); (possibly) dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis); etc.”), borrowed from Late Latin mercurius (“metallic chemical eleme… The correct English form is mercury, spelled M-E-R-C-U-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Senses relating to the metal.
- 2Senses relating to the metal.
- 3Senses relating to the metal.
- 4Senses relating to the metal.
- 5Senses relating to the metal.
- 6Senses relating to plants.
- 7Senses relating to plants.
- 8Senses relating to plants.
- 9Senses relating to plants.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English mercurie (“metallic chemical element, quicksilver; a plant, probably goosefoot (genus Chenopodium); (possibly) dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis); etc.”), borrowed from Late Latin mercurius (“metallic chemical element, quicksilver”), Latin Mercurius (“Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, communication, etc.; the planet Mercury; etc.”), possibly from merc-, a stem of merx (“goods, wares; merchandise”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from Etruscan; or * from Proto-Indo-European *merǵ- (“to divide”), or *merkʷ- (“to grasp; to take”). The suffix -urius is also thought to be from Etruscan. Noun sense 1.1 (“metallic chemical element”) is from the association in medieval alchemy of the seven known metals—gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, iron, tin, and lead—with the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. An analogy was probably also drawn between the element being liquid at room temperature, and the Roman god Mercury’s attribute of swiftness. Noun sense 2 (“senses relating to plants”) is derived from mercurial (“(obsolete) any of the plants now known as mercury”, noun), from Middle English mercurial (“a plant, probably goosefoot (genus Chenopodium); (possibly) dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis)”, noun) from Anglo-Norman mercurial, Old French mercurial, or directly from their etymon Latin mercuriālis (“a plant, probably annual mercury (Mercurialis annua)”), short for herba mercuriālis (“(probably) annual mercury”, literally “herb or plant of the god Mercury”). Mercuriālis (“pertaining to the Roman god Mercury”, adjective) is derived from Mercurius (“the Roman god Mercury”) (see above) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Noun sense 2.2.2.1 (“Blitum bonus-henricus”) is from the fact that this plant was often confused with annual mercury (noun sense 2.1). The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emrcury,mecrury,merccury,mercruy,mercurry,mercuryy,mercuyr,merrcury,merucry,mmercury,mrecury
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mercury - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "mercury"?
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Using “mercury”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-R-C-U-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɜːkjʊɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mercy” - see the side-by-side comparison. mercury vs mercy
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.